3…2…1 The start gun sounded, and a sea of runners snaked down the windy hill. We moved as if we were one. Connected. With tears in my eyes, I thought, “I belong here.” In that moment, those three words felt like truth. I didn’t have to work to believe them. They were not merely a thought, but an embodiment. I had not run in a race for decades and I didn’t realize how much self-doubt I had carried to the starting line. “I belong here” are words that do not always resonate with me, so a moment like this is profound. 

What is it about that moment that made belonging feel so real? What does it take to belong and why is the sense of belonging so elusive for some of us? Are we even meant to belong in this world? 

As people of faith, we must wrestle with these questions. On race day, belonging was tangible. We were all working toward the same goal and doing so in a similar way. Yet I hope there is something more to belonging than a push toward a goal. While that was enough for a 60-minute race, my soul needs more than a finish line to belong. “True belonging…[is] not something we achieve or accomplish with others; it’s something we carry in our heart,” writes author and researcher Brene Brown. 

In Paul’s letter to the Romans, he says something that strikes me as easy to gloss right over because the implications of it are so deep and lasting that they are nearly impossible to grasp. “So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord” (Romans 14:8, NLT). In other words: no matter what, we belong. Yes, we belong in this world and beyond it because we belong to God. Our sense of belonging does not depend on the people around us. 

When we have experiences of belonging like I did in the race, they are glimpses into the ultimate, life-changing truth that we carry in our hearts: we always belong to the Lord.